Serbia: Del Ponte In Belgrade To Urge Arrest Of Fugitives

Belgrade, 19 May 2003 (RFE/RL) -- Carla Del Ponte, chief prosecutor for the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, has arrived in Belgrade to press once again for arrest of fugitives accused of war crimes. Del Ponte's spokeswoman, Florence Hartmann, said that the prosecutors have recent information that Bosnian Serb wartime commander General Ratko Mladic frequently is seen in Serbia. Serbian authorities repeatedly have denied knowing Mladic's whereabouts.

The court has indicted Mladic, alleging that he is culpable in the massacre of more than 7,000 Muslim men and boys in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica in 1995.

Hartmann said Del Ponte also is calling for arrest of other fugitives, including several Bosnian Serb army officers wanted in the Srebrenica massacre, and of Veselin Sljivancanin, accused of the massacre of more than 200 civilians in the Croatian town of Vukovar in November 1991.